The spread of infection can be avoided by breaking any one link in the chain of infection. Protect yourself and your patients with standard precautions, safe injection practice, effective hand washing and personal protective equipment.

We all know that if you swallow your chewing gum, that wad is going to sit in your stomach undigested for seven years. But how do we know that? Someone probably told us—a parent, a classmate—or else we overheard it on the radio or TV, and we heard it so many times that we’ve taken it as fact.

“I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them,” said Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.

It seems most nurses share this feeling, and although medicine was in no way sophisticated by the time of the American Revolutionary War, men and women did what they could to care for the soldiers under their watch.